Daily Slice: Late-Night Carbonara Pizza at Maialino, NYC

"You have to spread the yolk all around," said Maialino chef Nick Anderer, delicately fork-poking the golden ooze all over the square slice. It was 10:45 p.m. in Maialino's front bar room, the perfect time for carbonara pizza.

"This is something I'd make at home with leftover pizza bianca." And that's where the idea came from: using up the extra pizza bianca; airy, tender, and light, it provides the base here. Anderer smothers on rich Pecorino bechamel sauce and scatters little glistening bits of housemade bacon on top. To prepare the yolk, it first gets submerged in rendered bacon fat and olive oil, then slow-poaches on a really low temperature for 15 minutes to get that ethereal jiggle.

When the slice arrives, the Cyclops yolk stares at you, saying something like, "swirl me all around." So, you do.

Available at the restaurant nightly, from 9 p.m. on, the $12 carbonara pizza special also comes with a beer: Brooklyn Brewery's AMA Bionda, a collaboration they created with the Italian microbrewery Amarcord. It's a great pairing: pours golden, floral, refreshing, with some orange blossom honey sweetness.

Maialino

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